


That's What I'll Be

by liamscurlock



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Accidental Baby Acquisition, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Baby Fic, Canon-Typical Violence, Danvers Sisters, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Kid Fic, Post Season 2, SO, This is my attempt at understanding Kryptonian culture and language i am so sorry, What's In the Pod, fight me, i did so much research tho, just a little bit, the end of season two was so weird and i don't want this baby to be all murdery and weird
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-02
Updated: 2017-10-07
Packaged: 2018-12-10 01:42:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 6,026
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11681373
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/liamscurlock/pseuds/liamscurlock
Summary: "The child was small, so small and clutching at the cape at her shoulders. His hands had immediately grasped onto it when she’d lifted his sleeping body and held him to her. She brushed light curls from his warm forehead, smoothed the wrinkles from his white tunic, and held him tighter when she saw DEO vans pull to the crash site. He murmured a word over and over in his sleep, “Ieiu, Ieiu, Ieiu,” and it pulled her heart stings to hear him call for his mother even in sleep."orThe baby fic/what's in the pod story that I was waiting for someone to write, eventually got tired of waiting, took it into my own hands and wrote instead. But the baby isn't some weird weapon murder-y thing, he's just a baby because why can't we have nice things ever.or orThe story of Kara and the Superfriends (plus some other cameos) growing closer and stronger in their attempt to raise one of the last children of Krypton, Dar-Em.





	1. What Else Can I Do

**Author's Note:**

> The title is Chester See's song, "That's What I'll Be." 
> 
> If I butchered any Kryptonese or culture or anything, leave me a comment and I'll work with it. I did a shit ton of research for this and bookmarked as many dictionaries, Wikipedia pages, and fandom websites as possible. Bear with me.
> 
> Kryptonese is italics, translation in bolded italics, English is the regular font.
> 
> Leave comments for suggestions, ideas, or inspiration. Comments are what remind me to write. I appreciate you all, thank you for your time.
> 
> -liam

The child was small, so small and clutching at the cape at her shoulders. His hands had immediately grasped onto it when she’d lifted his sleeping body and held him to her. She brushed light curls from his warm forehead, smoothed the wrinkles from his white tunic, and held him tighter when she saw DEO vans pull to the crash site. He murmured a word over and over in his sleep, “ _Ieiu, Ieiu, Ieiu_ ,” and it pulled her heart stings to hear him call for his mother even in sleep.

 

It hit her, minutes later, he's still clutching and still muttering, and she feels tears well in her eyes at the thought of him never having his _Ieiu_ because it's been almost four decades since his world had died, and she couldn’t get his mother and she couldn’t even reassure this tiny boy that she shared a lost world with.

 

Alex took one look at the boy cradled in her arms, sighed, and resigned herself to cautious affection. J’onn took several minutes of glaring from Kara, sighs and crossed arms from Alex and Maggie both, and a quick peek in the boy’s head before he gave his consent to the elder Kryptonian to fly him back to base.

 

She flies low, not low enough to get close to cars, but right in the ideal flying zone where the wind doesn’t whip by too hard and the temperature isn’t freezing. When she lands on the balcony, she lands so softly her boots hover off the ground a millimeter until she gets inside.

 

Winn turns in his chair to greet her, but all the color drains from his face and his hello is cut off at the sight of the boy. He raises his eyebrows, and his face isn’t distrustful or judgemental, just confused and cautious. The boy in her arms shifts and that motion causes the rest of the observing agents in the lobby to fully snap back to their senses. They all, excluding Winn, return to their screens.

 

“Is that- is that, the uh, what was in the pod?” He asks, and she goes to answer him, but the toddler blinks his eyes open and she sucks in a gasp.

 

His eyes lock onto hers, and they’re lost in a staring battle, his blues against hers. A moment passes and then he’s shifting them around the room, his heartbeat staccato, and thrumming faster.

 

She pulls back from him slightly, shushing him, placing a hand against his chest. “ _Rrup non voi_ . _Khahsh, epol chahv._ ” **You are safe. Breathe, little one.**

 

He blinked rapidly, his little fists tightening against the red of her cape.

 

Her heart softened and she smoothed the front of his tunic. “ _Tarrehd nahn i threv?” **What is your name?**_ She asked, her eyes searching his face.

 

Sucking in a breath, he murmured, “ _Khuhtiv threv nahn Dar-Em._ ” _**My name is Dar-Em.**_ He looked around again, his lip trembling and eyes squinting. “ _I kri fis ukep.”_ _ **It's bright in here.**_

 

“ _Khuhtiv threv nahn Kara Zor-El.” **My name is Kara Zor-El.**_ Then, Kara furrowed her eyebrows, scanning the rooms around them. “ _Tarraop-si shim vo kehgier vo zharrahn?”_ _ **Would you want to move somewhere darker?**_

 

He nodded, closing his eyes and moving his head back down to her shoulder. She slowly walked them to an empty meeting room, not bothering to turn the overhead lights on. Kara went to set Dar-Em down, but he clutched her and, smiling, she sat down on the table with him attached to her. It was quiet in the room, far enough down the hall that the buzz of talking was low, the lights dim. Kara had a million thoughts racing through her head, but the most present one was confusion as to how this little boy already so openly trusted her.

 

“ _Tarriv rraotiv lusu dol-voie-hd?” **Do your ears hurt?**_ She asks, and he lets go of her with one hand to touch his ear as if just noticing a lack of pain in the quiet room. His eyes are still squinted a little, but his expression looks less strained.

 

He nods again, pauses, then says quietly, “ _Zhi, zhehd non. Raogh ugem.” **Yes, they were. Less now.**_

 

She nods, remembering her first days on Earth. She’s on a train of thought before she notices, a dangerous trail of _I’ll have to get him some noise-cancelling headphones, soundproof his room-_ _Wait. What?_

 

She probably would have continued with those thoughts, had Dar-Em not looked up at her quickening heartbeat. Calming down, she smiled at him reassuringly.

 

He squinted more, his free hand coming to rest above her heart. “ _Tanim khuhp ulir rraotiv zhor?” **Why can I hear your heart?**_

 

And she is struck with awe at how smart he is, how quick he is to notice it’s her heart he’s hearing. Then, she’s afraid all over again. She can’t answer him because he’s throwing more questions at her before she has a chance.

 

“ _Tanim kryp? Voiehd tahn ehvahnu saoviz. Voiehd nahd zha khutiv zedhd. Tarrov zhaiovis shehd? Tarrehd non iovis ehworahzh?_ ”  _ **Where are we? This place smells weird. It doesn't look like home. Who were those people? What were they saying?**_ And then his questions stop. Because standing in the doorway are two people, and he’s back to closing his eyes and burrowing his head in her shoulder.  _ ****_

She looks to the door, and it’s just Maggie and Alex, but she understands his hesitation to keep talking.

 

Alex leans in the opening, her voice low and quiet, “J’onn called Eliza. He’s sending a helicopter to get her so that she can take a look at him.” She pauses. “He also called Clark. Who said he would fly over in the morning to meet him.”

 

Maggie grinned at Kara, her eyes shifting between her and the boy. “So, little Danvers, how do you ask him his name?”

 

Kara looked to Maggie in surprise and then smiled, bright and genuine.

 

_“Tarrehd nahn i threv?” **What's your name?**_ She says, slowly and careful to enunciate clearly.

 

Maggie steps closer, her eyes on Dar-Em. She rolls the words around in her mouth for a second, testing them out. He opens his eyes to squint at her, his nose scrunching.

 

“ _Tarrehd nahn i threv?”_ She asks, slow and cautious.

 

He sees the hesitation in her eyes and hears the slow and steady beat of her heart. Tilting his head, he says, “ _Khuhtiv threv nahn Dar-Em.”_

 

"His name is Dar-Em." Kara provides, and Maggie just beams at the boy.

 

Dar-Em smiles at her, a dimple on either side of his mouth just like hers. “ _Behrosh:Bem._ ”  _ **Greetings.**_

 

Kara looks at him with adoration in her eyes. “He's saying hello.”

 

And that makes Maggie smile wider. “Hello to you too, Dar-Em. I’m Maggie.”

 

“ _Voiehd nim_ Maggie. _Zhed nim khutovbysh. Voiehd nim khutovie,_ Alex.” _**This is Maggie. She's my friend. This is my sister, Alex.**_ Kara says, her hand resting on his chest as he pulls back to look at all of them. “ _Kryp zhanahn gem Kryptahn. Kryp nahn gem Rth. Zhedhd zharriv ehwor kryptahniuo.”_ ** _We are not on Krypton. We are on Earth. They do not speak Kryptonian._**

 

All the happiness drained from his face, confusion taking its place. His hand went back to her heart, and his eyes stared into hers.

 

“ _Takryp zhanahn gem kryptahn?” **We are not on Krypton?**_ He asked, his quiet voice confused and weary.

 

_“Khuhp nim nahvruht. Khuhp nim zhalish.” **I will explain. I am sorry.**_ Kara tried to reassure him, but her anxious heartbeat made his beat with anxiety as well.

 

Maggie came to sit beside them, and after a beat, Alex did too on Kara’s other side. Dar-Em buried his head against Kara’s neck, his heartbeat slowly leveling out. They sat there, on that table in the dim lighting, listening as the toddler’s breathing slowed, and when J’onn found them, minutes later, they were all still sitting there quietly.

 

Behind J’onn stood Eliza. She smiled softly at the four of them sitting there. Kara ever so slowly stood, her hands rubbing circles on the boy’s back. As she followed Eliza to the med bay, Alex, Maggie, and J’onn trailed behind.

 

Eliza dimmed the lights in the lab, and said quietly, “Kara, honey, why don’t you two sit over there on that sun bed together. He doesn’t seem to want to let go of you.”

 

And later, after all the tests and after Dar-Em had again fallen asleep against Kara’s chest, Kara took in their surroundings and smiled.

 

J’onn stood to the side talking in low tones with Eliza. Alex and Maggie were slumped against the wall, the former asleep and the latter being used as a pillow. Dar-Em’s fingers clenched and unclenched around her cape, little sighs spilling from his lips. And Kara, she sat on that sun bed and realized how thoroughly fucked her life was, decided a little bit of happiness was deserved now and resigned herself to protecting this last child of Krypton until her last breath.


	2. Let My Heartbeat Be (The Rhythm That Puts You to Sleep)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah, I posted chapter one like two hours ago, but might as well get this out too!
> 
> Thank you for commenting: LOCISVU and sharkle.
> 
> I don't pretend to have any upload schedule, but I fckn love writing this, so it'll probably be like once a week, maybe more.
> 
> Stay tuned, thanks for reading, comments make me write faster because then I feel GUILT about it. jk i love guilt.
> 
> -liam

It was a month later when Kal-El floated through the balcony doors, Lois in his arms. His face was guarded, yet Lois, good wonderful Lois Lane, was smiling the moment she saw Kara.

There’d been a crisis in Metropolis almost every day since Dar-Em landed, cutting off Kal-El’s attempts at meeting the newest member of Earth.

Dar-Em is in Winn’s lap, eyes intently latched onto the man’s, listening as Winn stumbled in Kryptonian and tried to explain something technical.

Dar-Em looks up in confusion when he hears a heartbeat so like his and Kara’s, but different, and his eyebrows knit together at the sight of Kal-El. Kara is to Dar-Em’s left, and he reaches a hand out to grasp her skirt in his fist.

“Who’s he?” asks Dar-Em, his English warbly, but he doesn’t want to look weak in front of this intruder in his life. So he pushes through broken sentences stored in his head and tries to imitate Kara’s easy accent.

Kal-El’s features change immediately. Lois too, her smile even bigger than it was.

His shoulders are squeezed by Winn’s hands, but he almost doesn’t register that feeling. He does hear Winn’s quiet approving tone as he squeezes again. He feels Kara brush at his curls and smile down at him.

Kal-El’s heartbeat is racing, and his expression is between confused and surprised.

“I thought you said he was from Krypton?” He asks, and Dar-Em can see the woman by his side, Lois, reach for his hand, which makes Kal’s heart tick down slowly.

Kara beams at Kal, her hand nestling in Dar-Em’s hair. “He is. He’s just a really fast learner. We’ve all been giving him small words to pick up on, and he just… figures the rest out.”

Dar-Em leans back against Winn’s chest, and he feels safe here, surrounded by the silly accents of people speaking English. There are some words he understands, pronouns mostly, but occasional verbs he remembers Winn using a lot.

Kal looks at the three of them, and finally, his face softens.

“Well, he’s probably already smarter than Smallville here, so I think he’s a keeper,” the woman with her hand in Kal’s winks at Dar-Em.

She lets go of Kal and walks toward their little group, her brown eyes full of mirth. She crouches down and tilts her head at him.

“ _Khuhtiv threv nahn_ Lois Lane _._   _Tarrehd nahn i threv?” **My name is Lois Lane. What’s your name?** _ And her Kryptonian is accented but perfected, no hesitations or stutters like in Winn’s, and it feels almost familiar like Kara’s.

He blinks at her momentarily before grinning, rapidly saying, “ _Khuhp non Dar-Em. Rraopi kryptahniuo:bem.” **I am Dar-Em. Your Kryptonian is good.**_

Lois laughs delightedly, “ _Nahkluv, epol chahv.” **Thank you, little one.**_

Her smile dazes him for a moment, and here, he is surrounded by two-thirds of the people he has come to love in the four weeks he’s spent on Earth, and another has already wormed her way into his heart.

Kara sees him smile, and, unthreading her hand from his hair, she presses a kiss to the crown of his head. She murmurs, “ _Khuhp_ _nim ehwor nahn Kal-El.” **I’m going to** **speak to Kal-El.**_ And then she and her cousin walk from the room.

He follows her heartbeat until it grows quieter, then disappears altogether. It’s the first time it’s happened since he’s been here, and that throws his senses off.

J’onn notices the boy freezing up from across the room. He pushes out the thinnest tendril of subconscious energy to Dar-Em’s mind, and the boy feels the familiar blanket of J’onn’s presence and uses that to ground himself.

When he can hear again, Winn’s voice is soothing in his ears. When he feels again, Lois’s hand is warm through the fabric on his knee. When he can see again, Alex and Maggie are crossing the room and they both catalog his face for traces of worry.

He feels again a sense of familiarity in the air, and just as he’s noticing it, his eyes start to close against his will. Winn is warm against his back, quiet words in both of their languages crooning in his ears. Lois rubs her thumb into his knee and the slight pressure of it makes his head loll against Winn’s shoulder. Alex and Maggie are against the counter to his left, and their quiet words to each other feel warm and safe. J’onn still has his metaphorical blanket over his mind, and watchful eyes scanning the room and making sure the rest of his employees are busy and quiet.

The main office of the DEO is normally bustling, and yet, now it is quiet, The whole world seems to be content to let the youngest Kryptonian slip back into sleep.

Kara’s heartbeat re-enters the room, and it’s steady pulse finally pushes Dar-Em into slumber.

He lays there, warm and safe in Winn’s arms for several minutes, all of his newfound family watching on. And when Kara picks him up from Winn’s lap, Dar-Em’s hands find their way to clutch at the red cape at her shoulders like always.

His small sighs are soft against her neck, his nose pressing into her. She takes him to a room down a long hallway, that, since his arrival, had been filled with a bed and several toys. A temporary room for when he felt the constant need to nap at the DEO.

Kara hummed a lullaby as she set him on the bed slowly. She smoothed back the curls from his head, kissed between his brows, and then quietly walked from the room.

She’d hear him the second sleep left his body, and she wasn’t worried about having to run to him. A dozen people in this building felt just as strong for him as she did, and at least two were always ready to calm him.

She wondered then if this would have been what it was like had she come to Earth the same time as baby Kal. If she’d have found a family just as entranced with Kal-El as they all were with Dar-Em.

Kal may be right in his assumption that she’d originally wanted to protect the boy because she hadn’t been able to with him. And yet, four weeks later, that thought couldn’t be further from her mind.

Kara thought of Winn introducing Dar-Em to all the technology on Earth, fumbling his way through Kryptonian, pure adoration in his face as he beamed down at Dar-Em. She thought of J’onn holding Dar-Em when both she and Alex and Winn would be dealing with some alien threat, repeating Dar-Em’s encouragement over the comms as they battled. Of Maggie pressing kisses into both of Dar-Em’s dimples as he taught her Kryptonian in exchange for her teaching him English.

She thinks of Alex running a hand through his curls every time she passed, dropping donuts and candies and his ever-favorite, cheeseburgers, in front of him at odd times of the day, remembering Kara’s appetite the first several months on Earth. Of James showing Dar-Em every part of the Guardian suit, letting him play with his camera and sit in his lap as he edited articles for CatCo in Kara’s apartment. Of Eliza showing him things through microscopes in the labs, bringing him soups Kara had walked her through making that are almost exactly like food on Krypton.

Kara thinks of all these humans that had so quickly taken place in the boy’s heart, and she smiles.

And then, breaking her out of her thought bubble is her CatCo ringtone.


	3. What A Beautiful Concept

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kal is hard to write, I'm learning. How do you write the most trusting but also most distrusting person ever? He's a goof but he's very serious and he's so nice but so dang ... idk ... something. He's crazy but I love him. I hope you guys love this too btw.
> 
> Comments make me so very happy. Thank you to Anita7 and Bandygirl for commenting on the last chapter.
> 
> -liam

****

It was early afternoon when Dar-Em woke. Alex and Maggie were at a crime scene, Kara at CatCO, while James and Winn dealt with a robbery downtown. 

 

Kal-El and Lois had been left at the DEO with Eliza and J’onn.

 

Dar-Em’s heartbeat was loud in Kal’s ears, a quick hummingbird symphony, and when it sped into an awake rhythm, he looked around in alarm for someone else to send to fetch the toddler.

 

Seeing no one else, as Lois had gone to get coffee, J’onn and Eliza being in the lab, and no other person around able to hear the boy’s heart, Kal slowly made his way down the hall.

 

He could hear the boy’s quickened breathing, hear him sitting up on the cot. When Kal reached the door, he pushed it open slowly. Dar-Em’s eyes flashed to look at him, his eyebrows sleepily crunching together at the sight of him.

 

“Is Kara… _ukep?_ **_Here?_** Dar-Em asked, his voice groggy, not quite sure of a proper translation.

 

Kal shook his head, trying to force a smile on his lips. He managed a small almost grimace, and Dar-Em looked to him in confusion.

 

The boy pushed his way off the bed, walking to stand beside Kal. Looking up at him, he rubbed his eyes and said, “ _ Rrup zharriv ukiem khahp.”  _ **_You do not like me._ **

 

Kal’s eyebrows shot up his forehead. Shaking his head almost violently, he knelt down and looked Dar-Em in the eyes. “ _ Khuhp rriv. Khuhp zharriv raozh rraop.”  _ **_I do. I do not know you._ ** _ “Khuhp nim zhalish.”  _ **_I’m sorry._ **

 

Dar-Em’s eyes were so trusting. Tilting his head, he said, “ _ Azhuhm khahp.”  _ **_Learn me._ **

 

There was a moment of hesitation between the two, and then, Kal placed a hand on Dar-Em’s shoulder.

 

“ _ Khahp bim-si ukiem zhatagehd lizrohm.”  _ **_I would love nothing more._ ** Kal says, his thumb rubbing circles in Dar-Em’s shoulder.

 

The boy nods, and when Kal stands, Dar-Em puts his arms up to be held. Kal smiles, pauses a bit, and then picks him up and walks them back to the front of the DEO.

 

______

  
  


Dar-Em likes the wind in his hair almost as much as he likes sitting in Winn’s lap, as much as running around the DEO on Maggie’s shoulders, as hugging Kara, as J’onn throwing him in the air and catching him, as Alex braiding little curls of his hair.

 

The boy laughs, loud and unafraid of the heights, wrapped in Kal-El’s arms and safe from harm. Dar-Em’s wrapped in the blanket that had been in his pod, which, according to Kal, is impenetrable. But Dar-Em isn’t really sure what that word means, so Kal tells him it makes him safe, which is an acceptable answer.

 

The boys had grown bored in the lobby of the DEO, and with permission from J’onn, Kal decided to take Dar-Em flying through the city.

 

“ _ Kal-El!”  _ Dar-Em shouts, beaming up at the man,  _ “Tarrahn nahn krop gov bim ahvrig  _ hot dogs?”  **_Where can we find hot dogs?_ **

 

And oh how does Kal-El laugh, pure delight stretches in his chest and he forgets all the trepidation and worry he’d had about this innocent boy.

 

“ _ Nahn krop ahvrip  _ hot dogs  _ tim krop ahvrig Kara?”  _ **_Can we find hot dogs after we find Kara?_ ** Kal asks, and the boy is so insistent and immediately starts scanning the skyline for her.

 

She comes streaking to them after several more minutes of flying, claiming she could hear their whooping and hollering miles away. Dar-Em doesn’t hesitate for a second, throwing himself into Kara’s arms the second she’d started flying beside them.

 

Kal is, understandably, quite alarmed, but Kara is used to the boy throwing himself at her every time she’s within 50 feet of her.

 

She laughs, loud and bright, presses a kiss to his curls and looks to Kal, “Winn, James, and Lois are getting a table at the Waterfront right now. Alex and Maggie said they would make their way over in about ten minutes or so.” She looks to Dar-Em. “ _ Krahp nahn skilor cheh:byshuju mov.”  _ **_We will see our friends soon._ **

 

____

 

"So, Kara, what was the dilemma with Cat today?" Winn asks, twenty minutes later when they've sat down for dinner.

 

Kara rolls her eyes, smiling, "Cat wanted to see how I was doing on my parental leave, but mostly she just looked at me and squinted and I could tell she was trying to find something conclusive that told her I was Supergirl." She pauses, scrunching her nose, "I really think she knows. She has to. I don't think J'onn and I can fool her again, she's too smart and she's seen J'onn shape-shift into people before."

 

J'onn grunts, "She's more trustworthy now, I suppose. You can tell her if you're comfortable. She helped a lot during the invasion, and she's keeping the President's secret as well, so."

 

At that, Kara smiles, letting out a whoosh of breath. "Oh good, maybe that will make her stop sending me those looks. Like she's the one with x-ray vision."

 

The whole table laughs at that. Dar-Em is content to sit and eat one of his new favorite foods, mac and cheese, and doesn't feel the need to understand the conversations. Although, Lois, who's sitting beside him, does lean over and whisper shortened translations in his ear when the jokes are particularly funny.

 

He's sat between Lois and Winn, Kara across from him in between Alex and J'onn, with Maggie beside Alex, Kal beside Lois, and James to the left of Winn. There's that wonderful layer of safety surrounding him again, warmth from all their bodies near him, a little fuzzy feeling in his navel that makes him feel like he's home.

 

He knows he isn't. He's smart, he knows he's smart, knows he was meant to be a scientist like his father, like Kal's father and like Kara's father. He knows, of course, that there aren't science guilds here on Earth, Kara had told him as much. They don't all have predetermined futures like on Krypton, which feels like relief on his shoulders. But, there's that funny feeling in his heart again, Kara had said it was "nostalgia," said that it meant he missed his home. 

 

He did. He missed his  _ Ieui _ , missed his  _ Ukr _ his  _ Khehthgr _ and his  _ Khethieu _ , all of his cousins and the priests in the temple. He missed his nursemaid, Ariella, and his aunt and uncle, Nadira and Bran-Em. He missed the painting that hung above his bed, the color of his curtains, the music player in the hallway that played sounds they didn't have on Earth.

 

He missed the journey from their house to the temple, the view of the mountains to the left. He missed little things you didn't think you'd miss. He’d been in his pod for about 50  _ ahmzhet _ . He isn’t quite sure how long that is, but Kara tells him it’s a long time, yet it doesn’t feel like it. 

 

He’s been on this earth for  _ kizh fanf,  _ an Earth month, or six of Krypton’s weeks. But he can still smell his father making bread in the kitchen, still taste the perfume in the air of his mother’s bathroom, hear the quiet prayers in the temple, feel the fabric of his grandmother’s robes or the reading cube his grandfather would let him hold. He feels like it was just yesterday that his family had shipped him off of his planet in his sleep, but it has been so much longer and that breaks his heart.

 

Dar-Em sits there in that restaurant surrounded by safety, and he should be happy, but his heart grows sadder every passing second.

 

Kal-El notices the change in his demeanor first. It’s the sudden slow to his heart, the way Dar-Em’s shoulders start drooping in a way that normally means he’s sleepy, but his eyes are wide open. 

 

He sends a glance to Lois, raising his eyebrows at the boy by her side. She doesn’t act like she notices him, continuing on with her story of Perry White throwing a chair at Kal, but he sees her hand slip down to rub circles on the back of Dar-Em’s. The boy leans his head against her in response, a small smile bringing out his dimples.

 

Winn notices too, and so he bumps Dar-Em’s shoulder, pulling something out of his pocket.

 

_“Khohp kypzrhig tagehd osh rrup.”_ ** _I made something for you._** He says, not once stumbling in the language, showing Dar-Em the glasses case in his hands.

 

He takes the glasses out, small lead frames with blue lines down the sides, lenses able to grow darker if the light inside or outside is too bright. Dar-Em smiles wide at him, gently taking the glasses and sliding them on his face.

 

The rest of the table watches on with amusement.

 

“ _ Ioivis nim vokai rrup. Zhehd nim vokai zhadolvoihd:bem.”  _ **_Those will help you. They will help you see better._ ** Kara says, remembering the first pair of glasses that Jeremiah made her.

 

Dar-Em loves them. The weight feels comfortable against his face, and it helps him feel grounded. The lead, according to Kara, will help him stop seeing through things without meaning to. And when they darken, it should help his senses stop being so assaulted when he walks into bright rooms.

 

Dar-Em thinks to himself then, as he’s surprised by how genuine his adoration of these people is, that he’s happy they found him. He’s happy they made him feel safe. 

 

Winn tells him they’ll pick an Earth name when they head back to the DEO, that they’ll work together to make the fancy documents humans need here. That fascinates Dar-Em, and so he smiles, anticipatory and happy. 

 

He is happy here, he thinks, happy to be with people that want him to be happy. He's happy that he wants to make them happy too.

 

 


	4. How Far We've Come

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay the first chapters were pretty long, and this one was gonna be but it was so long I split it into this and the next chapter. That will be up either Saturday evening or Sunday morning.
> 
> Surprisingly, I'm still enjoying writing this, and I don't feel that lack of ideas hitting me anytime soon. 
> 
> No new comments last chapter, but I hope for some this round. Thanks for your support guys.
> 
> -liam

**7:15 am**

**SuperNerd to MAGS:** _ dar-em literally jst ate a whole carton of raw eggs dude _

 

**7:15 am**

**SuperNerd to MAGS:** _ i dnt even kno what im supposed 2 do abt this _

 

**7:18 am**

**SuperNerd to MAGS:** _ send HELP mags wht if he gets salmonella???? _

 

**7:20am**

**SunshineAlien to betterlane:** _ hey wht wld happen if dar-em ate like _

 

_ A WHOLE carton of eggs _

 

**7:30 am**

**betterlane to SunshineAlien:** _ kara what the fuck _

 

_ how in the world did he manage to eat a whole carton of eggs _

 

 

**7:34 am**

**SunshineAlien to betterlane:** _listen lois_

 

_idk_

 

_ but u have a good point _

 

**7:45 am**

**betterlane to SunshineAlien:** _hes invulnerable u dummy_

 

_god knows u n clark hv probs eaten weirder_

 

Kara looks up from her phone to Dar-Em. He’s laying on the counter, his feet kicking off the side. She sighs, and he glances at her, smiling sheepishly.

 

“I did not… mean to?” He says, and she just squints at him.

 

He’d woken up before her for once, snuck into the kitchen because he was hungry, downed a whole carton of eggs, shell and all, and then crawled back into bed with Kara.

 

She’d woken to the smell of raw eggs far too close to her nose. And she may have promptly freaked out, forgetting his Kryptonian-ness, and convinced herself he was probably dying. 

 

She blew air from her nose, stroked the top of his head, and pushed herself off of the counter she was sitting on.

 

“I’m going to take a shower, Dar-Em.  _ Tarriv rraop nahvrught?”  _ **_Do you understand?_ ** She asks, pausing by the doorway.

 

He grins, upside down on the counter. “ _ Zhi, Kara.  _ I do understand.”  **_Yes, Kara._ **

 

His English was less broken every day, more words coming naturally as he listened and tried his best to translate. He was sounding more like a human three-year-old now, and Kara felt pride swell in her chest every time he said a sentence in both languages. 

 

She showers quickly, keeping an ear out for Dar-Em. As she towels off, she heads to his room to find clothes for him to wear that day.

 

Dar-Em doesn’t like most fabrics on Earth, saying his heightened senses make everything but the tunic he’d worn here, his blanket, and Kal and Kara’s supersuits seem scratchy. 

 

He has to wear clothes today, however, because he’d decided he wanted to meet Cat. A choice made entirely because he wanted to try out his English on someone that wasn’t the people who’d taught it to him. Plus, hearing Kara talk about Cat made her seem like his aunt, in a way, and that intrigued him.

 

She was walking around the corner when someone knocked on the door. She saw Alex and Winn through the door, and called out to Dar-Em to open the door.

 

“Kara! Hasn’t anyone told him he’s not supposed to just open doors!” Winn yells, his head down leafing through papers in his hands. “Also, here’s a birth certificate, social security card, immunization record, and insurance cards for him, Kara.”

 

Alex ruffles Dar-Em’s hair as she walks by, “We gotta work on calling you Darian, buddy. Understand?”

 

Dar-Em smiles at her, his nose scrunching. He sits up straight on the counter, reciting, “Darian Jeremiah Danvers, 3 and a quarter, born in Smallville, Kansas, born October 15th, 2014. My parents are distant cousins of Kara Danvers, and no other… relatives wanted to take me in.”

 

They all start a chorus of applause, Alex miming wiping a tear from her eye and Winn crushing Dar-Em in a hug. 

 

Kara clapped from where she was getting dressed in her bedroom, her smile wide and her eyes crinkling at the sides. He was so big, a month in and his English was coming so naturally, he’d already started growing bigger, and Kara was so glad he was happy and with them.

 

Darian. She’d have to call him that now, if only to get used to it. She looked forward to getting used to him, and she hoped they all made as much of an impact in his life as her family had when she’d first landed on Earth.

 

Sending up a little prayer to Rao, Kara went back to the kitchen, and to no one’s surprise, found it entirely trashed and full of her sheepish and so very guilty family.


	5. we're a million worlds apart (i don't know how i would even start)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, this is months late. I'm gonna make the smallest apology because I hadn't realized how much school would hinder me in writing this. So I know it's super annoying for me to update this late, but here's a chapter. I'll try to write later. I can't give you guys a definitive date, but, it's probably gonna happen within a week or two.

Darian shifted under Miss Grant’s gaze. She’d shooed Kara out of the room, saying something about a snapper, but he hadn’t really paid much attention. He could still hear her steady heartbeat, not far from him, and he grounded himself to the sound.

 

Cat Grant was terrifying, electrifying, and Darian loved it. 

 

“You look like her,” she said finally, after a minute or so of watching him, “Perhaps it’s the glasses.”

 

He smiled at her, and she tilted her head at him.

 

Before he lost his nerve he asked, “Are you and Kara friends?”

 

Cat raised her eyebrows. There was a smile playing at the edges of her lips, and her heartbeat was a lot like Winn’s, strong, steady, hummingbird fast. 

 

“Yes,” she drawled, her glasses sliding down the slope of her nose, “I do suppose we are. Why do you ask?”

 

Darian felt several answers run past the tip of his tongue. He decided on, “I’ve met all of her friends, but she talks about you like she talks about James, or Lucy, or Winn, so I thought you might be. I wasn’t sure.”

 

She lets the small smile break onto her face now, rolling her eyes all the while. She opened her mouth to speak, probably to say something snarky and charming when a loud explosion rattled the entire building.

 

Shouts were heard all around the bullpen, and within seconds, Darian had leaped over the desk and shoved Cat underneath behind him. He faced outward, his ears straining to find Kara, setting his shoulders and trying to alleviate any danger that could hurt Cat. 

 

A gust of wind blew through the office, and there, through the opening of the desk, Darian could see Supergirl’s boots. Kara squatted down, her eyebrows raised and mouth set, and Darian climbed into her outstretched arms. She held her left hand out, beckoning at Cat.

 

“Are you alright Miss Grant?” She asked, pulling the CEO out from under the desk.

 

Darian watched Cat looked around them, her eyes flitting through the smoke and ash falling through the air. 

 

“Well, my building isn’t.” Her eyes came to rest on Kara again, “Again. You do seem to attract unseemly attention here, don’t you?”

 

Kara grimaced, her eyes tightening. 

 

Darian rested his hand on Cat’s shoulder, watching her eyes move around for a second. 

 

He leaned his face up to Kara, whispering,  _ “Tarrehd nahn nahzhgehnes?”  _ **_What is happening?_ **

 

Kara looked around him, and Darian could see the panic in her eyes. “I’m not sure,” She looked down at Cat, her eyebrows furrowing again, “I should take you two somewhere. Your apartment isn’t far, is it, Miss Grant?”

 

Cat shook her head, “You can take us both there. Carter will be home, and I’m sure it won’t be hard to watch Darian for you.”

 

Kara nodded for a moment and then swung her head back to Cat. “For-for me? Why would you be watching him for me? I meant that we could go find Kara Dan-”

 

“Oh Kara,” Cat hums, her eyes locked on the skyline, “We can discuss me knowing your secret identity later. You have a city to save, again.”

 

Darian sees Kara tighten the muscles in her jaw. She sighs through her nose, glancing through the office windows. They’d been talking moments, but he knows that she’s wasting precious time in here. “ _ Gehd:bem.  _ I will… be alright with Cat. You have to go.”  **_It’s alright._ **

 

She locks eyes with him, and then her ear-piece switches on, Alex’s voice in her ear. She lets Darian scramble down the ground, spinning to let him clamber up her back. He settles against her spine just as she scoops Cat in her arms. 

 

He rests his head on her shoulder, smiling at Cat. She looks terrified, but she squints at him good-naturedly all the while. The flight is over in a minute, and Kara sets them down on the tallest balcony of the building.

 

Darian climbs down, racking his brain for the word Kara had used to describe Cat’s house. He looked over to her, his hands curling into the sides of his  _ ghozh _ , his sweater. “What do you- what is your house called, Cat?”

 

Cat looks at him, and he can’t really tell what she’s thinking, but she says, “A penthouse. It’s the largest and the highest part of a housing complex.”

 

He nods at her, his dimple showing through the smile creeping up his face.

 

Kara bends down, whispering, “ _ Nahn voi, Dar-Em.”  _ **_Be safe, Dar-Em._ ** She presses a kiss to the crown of his head, glances one last time at Cat, and flies back towards CatCo.

 

There are sirens wailing in the distance, and a storm cloud had started brewing outside of the city, making the air smell of metal. He looks up at Cat, and there’s a grimace on her face. He knows she just saw her building back in one piece only two months after it had been destroyed, knows that she’s dreading seeing her city in rubble again. However, he doesn’t really know how to say any of that out loud, so he simply reaches up and takes her hand.

 

He had expected her to react to it, but she doesn’t. All she does is continue to stare out into the city, her hand warm in his. 


End file.
